Strong pressure is to be placed upon the Government to
put .down slavery in the Soudan, and, indeed, slavery in Egypt itself; and if the British are to protect the country, this must, of course, be done. The difficulty is that the Mussulman Government, believing slavery lawful, will make no honest attempt to abolish it, or to prevent the importation of slaves. That difficulty has not prevented the suppression of the institution throughout India, and we should much like to see the first Indian method tried. That was simply to notify that the status of slavery could not be recognised in any Court of Justice, the .effect being that a slave can demand wages, can punish an .assault like any one else, and can go away, if he pleases. It has been found that under these privileges slavery dies. The masters find, holding slaves entirely profitless, and the slaves slip away, and melt into the general body of She population. A tax of 21,000 on any imported slave, payable to any informer by either dealer or purchaser, would complete the work, without any despatch of expeditions. It should never be forgotten that slaveholding is a low as well as a bad occupation, and. that the instant slavery ceases to pay, all the arguments in its favour are given up. If cultivation by slaves had not been profitable, the " patriarchal institution" in America would have ended in .a week. The Old Testament would not have saved it in Virginia, and the Koran will not in Egypt.
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